


Breaking The Raft

by ozhawk



Series: BAMF! Laura Barton 'verse [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Women, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Civil War, F/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Unexpected relatives, Women Being Awesome, laura is a bamf, prison break - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-08 13:29:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6856987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozhawk/pseuds/ozhawk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura Barton is Most Displeased when she finds out Clint's been locked up in The Raft, a floating prison for the scum of the earth. She decides to do something about it.</p><p>This story takes place during and after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Consequently, please do not blame me if you elect to read it before you have seen the movie and find some of the plot has been spoiled for you!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Recruits

**Author's Note:**

> For a hilarious (and slightly different) take on the prison break, please check out [That One Time Clint Barton Got Busted Out of a High-Security Prison (Again)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6766378)

“Where are you going?” Tony shouted after Natasha as she walked away from him. His only response was a raised middle finger over her shoulder. “Yeah, all right, I probably deserved that,” he muttered. “Whatever.” He should take her in himself, but he didn’t have the heart for another fight. Not now, and not against Natasha, who would undoubtedly have a whole load of nasty surprises just waiting for him if he tried.

Natasha waited until she was well away from the facility and had changed clothes and cars (twice) before stopping at a gas station to find a payphone and make the call.

“I’m in the clear. Stark didn’t come after me.”

“So he’s not all _that_ stupid,” the voice at the other end of the line said tartly. “Come on, Nat. Hurry up or I’ll fucking well leave without you.”

“I’ll be there in two hours.” Hanging up, Natasha hurried back to her stolen car. She had no doubt that Laura meant every word.

Driving up to the farm, she wasn’t really surprised to see the quinjet parked out front. “I thought Clint would have taken it,” she called to Laura as she parked the car up by the barn and hurried to the jet’s open rear ramp.

“We do have two, you know,” Laura threw her a sardonic look. “There were quite a lot of them going begging after SHIELD fell. Didn’t take much effort to expand the hangar under the barn to fit a second one. Of course, it meant I didn’t get my sunroom finished, but, you know. Priorities.” She was carefully securing little Nate’s carseat in one of the quinjet’s jumpseats. Lila and Cooper were already buckled in, serious expressions on their small faces.

“Do you want me to fly?” Nat took a step towards the cockpit.

“No.” Laura turned to face her. “Forgive me if I don’t quite trust you right now, Natasha, with that. Tony is honourable enough that I’m pretty sure he’d never reveal our location, but I never truly thought _you’d_ take sides against Clint, and you _knew_ he’d never sign up to the Accords if only because it would compromise _us_.”

“He said he was retired,” Natasha defended herself, but Laura’s searching stare made her drop her gaze. “Someone needed to take the reins,” she said quietly. “After Ultron…”

“None of which was your fault. Stark needs to deal with his own raging guilt complex, not take it out on other people,” Laura snapped. “And these Accords are not the way, Natasha! Did you _read_ them?”

“There was a lot of legalese,” Natasha mumbled a bit defensively.

“Well I was a legal secretary, once upon a time. I _did_ read them, and while yes, there’s a fair bit about peacekeeping in there, there’s also clauses that would allow the UN to _command_ you guys to _invade_ anyone _they_ didn’t like the look of. If Clint had agreed to sign that I’d have shot him myself.” Laura’s lips tightened and she gave Natasha a condemning look.

“It doesn’t matter now anyway. I broke the contract when I helped Steve and Bucky get away in Leipzig. I… I realised when Tony brought the kid in, that I’d made a mistake. Any side that recruits child soldiers to fight its wars - he’s only a couple of years older than Cooper.” Natasha cast a look at the oldest Barton child, settled contentedly into his seat with a book.

“I believe I shall be having Words with Mr Stark when this is all over,” Laura said grimly, stalking towards the cockpit and settling into the pilot’s seat. “Strap in, Nat.”

“Where are we going? Fury? I know he keeps tabs on you…”

“Perhaps later. Right now I have another stop to make. Some friends to pick up.”

“Do you really want to drag more people into this?” Natasha asked as Laura punched buttons and flipped switches, closing the ramp and starting the jet’s engines.

“Trust me,” Laura gave a private little smile, “these people would be very angry if we _didn’t_ ‘drag them in’.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

San Francisco wasn’t a location Natasha had expected, but Laura didn’t seem disposed to answer questions. Just sent a quick text from her phone after they landed on a vacant lot, and a few minutes later an old van came rattling up the street. Four people hopped out and came jogging swiftly over.

“Laura?” a woman’s voice said.

“That’s me, and you must be Hope.” Laura smiled and stepped forward, offering her hand.

“I am.” The woman stepped into the light, and Natasha put the pieces together and suppressed a gasp. Hope _van Dyne_. “And this is Luis, Kurt and Dave.”

“Ma’am,” one of the men, tall and black, nodded politely. The second, a lean guy with a wolflike, Eastern European look to him, nodded too. And the third, a round-faced Latino, grabbed Laura’s hand and shook it eagerly.

“Thank you for letting us come along, Mrs Hawkeye. Me an’ Kurt an’ Dave, we was just starting to put together a crew of our own, but a land-based prison break, that’s pretty challenging, you know? An ocean one is a _whole_ ‘nother level.”

“ _Barton_ , Luis,” Hope said. “Mrs _Barton_. I’m sorry about them,” she said in an undertone, “but I don’t think you and I can pull this off without their help, and they really are very good at what they do.”

“I don’t mind Mrs Hawkeye, actually,” Laura said with a grin, “but you can all just call me Laura. And this is Natasha.”

There was some side-eyeing, and some straight-on eyeing from Luis, who looked as though his eyeballs might actually fall out.

“Preetty murder lady on our side?” Kurt asked eventually.

“Yes. She is.” Laura’s tone was definitive, and they all nodded, taking her word for it.

Natasha found herself relegated to sitting in the back with the men and the Barton kids, who were by now all soundly asleep, as Hope went up to sit by Laura.

“So,” she said eventually, finding herself slightly bothered by the silent staring, “what are your specialties?”

“Hacker,” Kurt pointed at himself. “But since Mrs Hawkeye have you, I am thinking she not need me.”

“I think she’s brought me along for my _other_ skills, actually,” Natasha disagreed. “You?” she looked at Dave.

“Getaway driver, but… this is a plane. I can’t fly, and since it’s an ocean prison…” Dave shrugged self-deprecatingly. “I guess I’m just here because Scott’s got himself in the shit again and I’d like to help him get out.”

“Don’t put yourself down, you is the _best_ distraction man, look at when that prick Pedro was trying to hit on my cousin Emilia, you did a great job of flirting with her to put him off,” Luis chided. Natasha saw Dave’s smirk and guessed that Luis might have _slightly_ misread Dave’s actual motives in that situation, but hell. Where they were going, any extra bit of manpower couldn’t hurt.

“And what about you?” she asked Luis, thinking privately that with his mile-a-minute talking, he’d be good at distracting people too.

“I punch people,” Luis said cheerfully. “Very hard.” He smiled at her, showing his teeth. “People who get on the wrong side of my buddy Scott.”

Natasha thought about the way she’d zapped Scott in the airport. “That’s good to know,” she said, keeping her voice even. “I’m just gonna check with Laura how long it’ll be until we get there.”

Hope looked up at her with a not-very-friendly expression as she entered the cockpit, and Natasha wondered just how much of the airport fight footage she’d seen. And just how close she and Scott were.

And just what Hope’s specialty was…

“Where are we going now?” she asked Laura, not particularly hopeful of an answer. She got one, though.

“Wakanda.”

“You… do know that T’Challa fought _against_ Cap’s team, right?”

“He was there for the sole and simple reason that he thought Barnes killed his father. Now he knows it’s not true, he’s had a rethink,” Laura told her, glancing around. “He’s had a rethink about the whole Accords, actually. Since they presumed to tell him what he, as Black Panther, could or could not do even inside the borders of his own sovereign country, never mind in its defence outside it. He’s a whole lot less impressed with the Accords now his people have been through them with a fine tooth-comb.”

“Yes,” Natasha murmured. “I can imagine. So… you’ve been talking to T’Challa, have you?”

Laura returned her attention to the flight instruments. “Nobody thinks of me as a threat, Natasha. You know that.”

“Men can be fools,” Hope said sardonically.

“It’s not unique to men,” Natasha said, “I’ve done a few foolish things myself. Some of them in the last few days.”

Laura said nothing, but Natasha saw a small smile curve her lips.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They landed in Wakanda shortly after daybreak. T’Challa himself was waiting to meet them, his face calm and regal. Natasha had to suppress a sudden, unexpected urge to throw herself into his arms. He nodded to her in greeting before bowing to Laura.

“Mrs Barton. It is an honour to have you here in Wakanda.”

“Thank you, your Majesty.”

“And you have my personal guarantee that your children will be safe here, no matter what happens. Nobody will ever harm them.” He gestured, and three motherly-looking, smiling women came forward.

“Thank you,” Laura said, and visibly hesitated before kissing Lila and Cooper, taking Nate in her arms for one last close cuddle before handing him over. “But I’ll be back. Soon, _with_ my husband.”

“I do not doubt that you will.” T’Challa bowed more deeply to her. “Anything I can do for you, it is yours.”

Laura smiled. “Just the one thing, if you would…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yes, Mr Secretary, I am on final approach with Romanoff in custody,” Laura said calmly over the radio. Natasha shook her head in amazement at Laura’s cool forethought. Programming a vocal synthesiser to mimic T’Challa’s voice when Laura spoke was a touch of genius. Wakanda hadn’t yet withdrawn from the Accords, and Ross was more than ready to believe T’Challa had indeed brought the Black Widow to the Raft to join the rest of the ‘traitors’.

Laura lowered the jet into the Raft’s open hangar with a delicacy Natasha could only envy. Clint had done a _lot_ of flight training with her, she thought, feeling the aircraft touch down lightly on its landing gear.

Hope came striding back into the jet’s body wearing some sort of suit in royal blue and gold that looked suspiciously like Ant-Man’s, except with gauzy-looking wings attached at the back. Natasha’s eyes widened as she looked at her.

“You do the shrinking thing too?”

“They call me the Wasp,” Hope’s smile was feral. “Dave, you and me, we’re on weapons pickup. I gotta get Scott’s suit back. Let’s just pray nobody’s started trying to take it apart yet.”

“Yeah, pray for _them_ ,” Dave responded with a nod.

“What do you want me to do?” Natasha asked humbly as Laura strode past, pulling an arm guard on and reaching to pull a bow and quiver from a rack.

“You and Kurt need to hack the control systems, keep the Raft on the surface and get the hangar doors back open as soon as possible. They go deep, we’re sunk. Literally.”

“We’ll need to take the central control room then,” Natasha said, accepting the guns that Laura offered her. “Casualties?”

“I don’t give a fuck about casualties. They are holding _my husband_ in this _filthy_ place, the prison designed for the scum of the earth, without a trial or even a fucking lawyer. They haven’t even given him one damn phone call.” Laura _wasn’t_ calm, Natasha realised at last. She was holding onto sanity by the edge of her fingernails.

“We’ll get him out,” she said quietly. “We’ll get them all out, Laura.”

“Yes, we damn well will. Luis,” Laura jerked her head towards the quinjet’s manual rear hatch handle. “Ready.”

“Yes, Mrs Hawkeye,” Luis grabbed the handle as Laura chose an arrow, fitted it to her bowstring and drew back. Natasha took a deep breath and stepped up beside Laura, a pistol in either hand; sensed rather than saw Hope move up on her other side.

“Pull.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I have any South African readers who speak Xhosa, I'd appreciate a check on a couple of Google Translated sentences I have for the last chapter in this, if you'd please get in touch? Thanks!


	2. Don't Mess With A Mom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secretary Ross learns that you really, really shouldn't mess with Laura Barton.

They’d already taken down all the men in the Raft’s hangar when a strange rumbling made them look up.

“What the hell…” Laura said, startled, as the roof began to open again. “Why would they do that?”

“Doesn’t fucking matter, just keep shooting!” Natasha yelled at her, and Laura shook off her surprise and whipped out another arrow.

A second quinjet was hovering, coming in for a landing, but there was no room on the landing pad. The jet hovered in mid-air for a few moments and then two figures leaped out of it, dropping down into the Raft without parachutes.

“Steve!” Laura yelled, shooting down a man who raised his gun to fire at the blue-clad figure. “Over here!”

“ _Laura?_ ” Steve came striding over to her, Bucky just behind him. “What are _you_ doing here?”

“Pretty much the same as you, I suspect.” Laura smirked at him. “Come on. We need to take the control room.”

With Steve and Bucky fighting alongside them, even though Bucky only had one working hand, it was all over in moments. Steve smashed down the control room’s reinforced door with a single kick and they strode inside.

“Captain Rogers!” Secretary of State Ross was puce with rage. “How _dare_ you!”

“It’s not _him_ you need to worry about,” Laura snarled, striding forward, sighting along her arrow at his throat.

“Who the hell are you?”

Laura grinned at him, showing her teeth. “ _Mrs_ Hawkeye.”

“Don’t kill him, Laura,” Steve said. “Come on, we need to keep casualties to a minimum. Just get our people and go.”

Laura snarled, but lowered her bow. “Natasha,” she turned her head. “Kurt. Get to it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kurt hurried forward to take a seat at a control panel. Ross reached out to grab him and Luis stepped in and punched him hard in the face.

Ross collapsed like a puppet with the strings cut, Luis shook out his fist with a small smile, and then looked startled as everyone started cheering. A broad grin cut his face and he preened briefly.

“Good job,” Laura clapped him on the shoulder on her way past. “Stay here and punch him again if he wakes up. Steve. You’re with me.” She looked at Bucky, prowling around the room with a pistol in his hand. “Barnes, hold the control room.” He nodded at her, and she glanced at Natasha once before turning away.

“Why do I have the feeling that Clint deliberately led all of us to underestimate you?” Steve asked as Laura led him deeper into the prison.

“He didn’t mislead you. He just didn’t feel the need to tell you everything.” Laura hummed to herself, fiddling with her arrow selector. “He’s been a spy for a long time, Steve. Secrets, eventually they’re second nature.”

“I get the feeling he doesn’t keep any from you.”

“He’s a spy, not an idiot.” Laura harrumphed to herself, then stopped as they got to a closed door. “Looks like this is it.” Looking up at the camera above the door, she said “Nat, if you please?”

It was only a few moments before the door hummed open. Steve tried to caution Laura to wait, but she looked pointedly at his empty hands before stepping into the open doorway with her bow drawn.

Arrows hissed into the darkness beyond, and in the distance Steve saw a movement in one of the cells; Clint stepping up to the glass, a broad grin on his face.

“Come on,” Laura beckoned Steve in. “I’m getting Clint out. Work on the others.”

“We should get Sam first, probably…”

“I am getting _my husband_ ,” Laura’s eyes sparked at him. “You do whatever you feel you need to.” She turned away from him, heading to Clint’s cell. “Hello, darling.”

“Angel,” he gazed at her, a smile on his face. “I didn’t expect you, but I’m glad you’re here.”

She smiled at him, examining the lock before pulling out the ring of keys she’d taken from the control room. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“My bow?”

“Being collected. Aha!” she tested a key. The lock clicked and the door swung open.

“Excuse me,” Scott said a few seconds later from the neighbouring cell, “but would you mind interrupting the passionate reunion to let me out too before everything goes even further to shit?”

Laura sighed and let go of Clint. “Is his sense of timing always this crap?”

“Worse. Just don’t even ask what I’ve been through in the last couple of days.” Clint gave Scott the stink-eye as Laura handed him the keys.

“Shouldn’t you be the one with the bow?” Scott said in an undertone as Clint let him out.

Clint gave him a weird look. “It’s _her_ bow.”

“Ohhh… kay. I won’t ask again.” Scott nodded, hanging onto the bars as Clint fiddled with the lock. “Just get me outta here!”

“Oh my God, my poor baby!” came a cry from behind them, and Clint whirled around, leaving the key stuck in the lock. Scott swore and grabbed for it himself.

“Laura?”

“Wanda! Clint, get me those keys, _now_!”

Fortunately Scott had managed to get the door open or he’d have been abandoned in his cell as Clint grabbed for the keys. He hurried after Clint to Wanda’s cell, where Steve and Sam joined them.

“We couldn’t see her, and she wouldn’t talk to us - oh my God,” Clint whispered as they looked in and saw Wanda sitting on the floor, restraints binding her, a control collar wrapped around her neck. She was rocking herself slowly.

“That does not look good,” Scott said after one shocked glance, and took the keys from Clint’s fumbling fingers. “Here. Let the burglar do it.”

Laura pushed past and into the cell first, dropping to her knees beside Wanda. “Wanda, baby - I’m here. I’m here, you’re safe.”

Wanda’s eyes were unseeing at first as they looked up at her, as Clint started unbuckling her restraints and Scott sorted keys again to find the one to get the control collar off.

“Momma?” she whispered eventually.

“I’m here, honey. I’m here. Get that thing _off_ her!”

“...is that gonna be safe?” Sam whispered to Steve.

“I’m thinking it will be a lot less safe than if we don’t. Considering how angry Laura is.”

“The key isn’t here,” Scott said finally. “These are only cell keys.”

“Must be up in the control room. Come on. You,” Laura pointed at Steve. “Carry her. _Carefully_.”

Since she was the only one who was armed, they all listened, trooping behind her through the Raft until they got back to the control room, where Hope and Dave had just arrived, carrying Scott’s suit, Sam’s wings and Clint’s bow and arrows.

Secretary Ross was awake, tied to a chair with a rag stuffed in his mouth, Luis and Bucky standing over him while Natasha and Kurt managed the computers.

“Where’s the key?” Laura put an arrow back to the string, drew back, strode up to Ross and pointed it directly at his left eyeball. “The key to her control collar,” when Ross’s eyes widened with panic. “ _Now_. And don’t think that I won’t do this because I definitely fucking will.”

He made eager grunting noises, jerking his head to one side. She sighed impatiently, lowering her bow and jerking the rag out of his mouth. “Tell me.”

“Top drawer over there!” Ross gasped. Hope went to look, came back with the key and unlocked Wanda’s collar.

“Don’t think you’ll get away with this,” Ross spat venomously as Wanda staggered, sobbing, into Laura’s welcoming arms. “I’ve seen your faces, I know who you all are. I’ll make sure you’re hunted until the end of the world.”

“We’ve deleted all footage and wiped the servers,” Natasha said, “but it’s true, he knows who we all are.”

“Then we bring him with us,” Laura said, gesturing at Clint, who hauled a protesting Ross to his feet. “Because I’m holding you responsible too, Mr Ross. For the Abomination’s rampage through Harlem, for holding four Avengers without trial or charges and _torturing_ Wanda, and for insisting Romanoff be brought directly here without benefit of trial because you thought it might lure in Bruce Banner.”

“ _What_?” Natasha gaped, rising from her seat, her head turning to Ross.

“He told T’Challa. Planned to plaster it all over the news. Because you’ve never quite given up on that idea of getting Banner back to use as the military’s secret weapon, have you, General?” Laura almost spat the words into Ross’s face before turning on her heel, Wanda still clutched protectively against her, and storming out, leaving the others to all trail in her wake.

The hangar doors were still open, the quinjet exactly where they’d left it. Clint headed for the cockpit after a single glance from Laura, who took her time settling Wanda into a jump seat as the quinjet lifted off. The rear ramp was still open, Secretary Ross standing near it, between Luis and Bucky. Laura paused to look at him before seeming to suddenly make up her mind, striding forward and jabbing the tip of her bow sharply at his face.

Startled, Ross took a couple of quick steps back, slipped on the angled ramp. Steve yelled and made a grab for his arm; Laura flicked his wrist aside and jabbed Ross in the guts, making him gasp and bend forward sharply. A daintily booted foot connected hard with his face.

He screamed all the way down to the roiling grey ocean.

“Close the ramp, Luis,” Laura ordered. “What?” as several shocked pairs of eyes fixed on her. “He slipped.”

Hope was the first to meet her eyes, with a fierce grin of solidarity. Laura smiled back at her before going back to Wanda’s side.

“Who _is_ that?” Scott breathed in some awe at Steve’s side.

“That’s Laura Barton. Clint’s wife.”

“Wait. _She_ is Clint’s wife? The Goddess of Vengeance there is the same woman who Clint calls his ‘sweet angel’, who he told me loads of stories about what an amazing mom she is…” Scott trailed off incredulously, staring at Wanda, now sobbing in Laura’s arms.

“I’m having a little bit of trouble reconciling it myself,” Steve admitted.

“The lesson here is _don’t mess with a mom_ ,” Kurt said seriously.

“Because she’ll kick your ass into the ocean a thousand miles from land and not even blink twice,” Luis said a bit wonderingly. “Daaaamn. And I won’t even be able to tell anyone the story!”

“We’re being hailed,” Clint yelled back from the cockpit. “Something you want to tell us about, Steve?”

“Uh, yeah,” Steve looked suddenly a little self-conscious. “Well. We figured we’d need a bit of help to get into the Raft…”

“Laura Louise Barton,” Fury’s voice suddenly boomed from speakers overhead. “How dare you stage a prison break to get Clint out without coming to me for help?”

“I’m sorry, Uncle Nick,” Laura squinched up her nose. Several people mouthed _‘Uncle Nick?’_ incredulously at each other. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be allowed to help.”

“That’s the advantage of not having anyone to report to,” Fury said, “There’s nobody to tell you what not to do.”

Steve’s smile was tight. “I didn’t really have anywhere else to go. I had a contact number for Hill, so we called her and met up with the Helicarrier.”

“Shall I take us in, or did you have another destination in mind, honey?” Clint called back.

“Take us in,” Steve said.

“Excuse me, Mr Rogers, but I don’t believe he was talking to you,” Laura said in chill tones. “You’re aboard _my_ quinjet and this is _my_ mission. You don’t get to give the orders here.”

Steve actually froze with shock, mouth hanging open. Behind him, Bucky barked a short, amused laugh.

“She reminds me of Peggy Carter, Steve. More than the blonde one.”

“Thank you,” Laura said, “I’ll take that as the compliment it is, considering that you actually knew my grandmother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes. Yes, Laura is indeed Peggy's granddaughter.
> 
> Still looking for a Xhosa speaker's help with chapter 3, if there's one about? If not I will just have to put up the Google Translate sentences and hope anyone who reads it isn't too offended!


	3. Freedom

Ignoring the dropped jaws of everyone around her, Laura grabbed a headset and put it on, never removing her arm from around Wanda.

“Uncle Nick, we’re headed for Wakanda. I need to pick up the kids. And frankly, Wanda’s with us and she’s far too traumatised to be aboard your gray military-industrial behemoth right now. Meet us there if you want to.”

“Oh, I will definitely be meeting you there, young lady,” Nick said in her ear. “I’m rather annoyed you didn’t call me first.”

“We all know who she inherited that independent streak from,” Clint said wryly on the circuit.

“You Carters are the bane of my life. I’ve just had to retrieve Sharon from CIA custody as well,” Fury audibly sighed. “And now I’ve got to negotiate with King T’Challa to bring the Helicarrier into Wakandan airspace, since they’re one of the few nations technologically advanced enough to keep us out if they really want to.”

“Well, have fun with that,” Laura said rather insincerely before cutting the circuit and hanging the headphones back up. Turning her attention back to Wanda, she put both arms around the younger woman and pulled her close. “It’s all right, sweetie. It’s all right. We’ll be going home soon, I promise.”

“I don’t think she slept,” a voice said quietly, and Laura glanced up to see that Scott had crept closer. “I could hear her, humming to herself. In her own language, I think. I didn’t know the words, but I tried to tap along to the beat. Hum with her if I could. I sang to her sometimes too.”

He’d been in the cell beside Wanda’s, Laura realised, and while none of them had been able to see her, Scott had obviously had some sense that something was wrong. “Sing to her now,” she requested. “You have a daughter, don’t you? What do you sing to her?”

“Um,” Scott blinked hesitantly. “She likes… Cassie likes _Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star_.”

“That was my Lila’s favourite too, when she was a bit smaller,” Laura gave him a smile. “But regrettably, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, and once she realised how terrible I sounded, she asked me to stop singing. So would you sing for her, instead of me?”

Scott stared at her for a moment. At her slim, capable hands tenderly stroking Wanda’s back, her hair; before he nodded quickly and began to sing, in a low but strong tenor.

He sang the song through twice, hesitated, and at Laura’s nod began to sing another, one he remembered singing Cassie to sleep with when she was a baby. Another voice joined in and Scott looked up in surprise to see Sam lowering himself into the next seat, his eyes too trained on Wanda.

It wasn’t long before Hope and Steve joined in, and when they finished the song, another voice began; singing this time in Russian. It was Kurt, and he hadn’t sung more than a couple of words before Natasha joined in.

Luis sang in Spanish next; Natasha joined in on that one too, and so did Scott. Slowly, very slowly, Wanda’s shudders eased, the tight, frantic grip of her hands on Laura’s jacket incrementally relaxing until finally she let go, her hands falling laxly to the seat, her breathing slow and steady.

“Anyone who wakes her up before we arrive in Wakanda is gonna get one of my arrows shoved where the sun don’t shine,” Laura said softly but very vehemently.

None of them doubted her for a moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wanda was still asleep when they landed in Wakanda, but woke and froze in terror when Steve tried to pick her up, at least until she saw who it was. She shook her head and said;

“No, put me down. I want to walk.”

He set her back down with a light squeeze on her shoulder, a murmur of; “I’m so sorry, Wanda.”

“You couldn’t know, and you came to get us out. It’s all right.” She smiled up at him, her mouth a little tremulous. Steve put a steadying arm around her shoulders and hugged her tight.

Natasha found herself walking at the back of the group, beside a silent Kurt, as they all trooped down the ramp. T’Challa and his female bodyguard were waiting for them; the tall, beautiful black woman locked eyes with Natasha for a moment, her expression hard.

_I suspect she’s holding a grudge over me shocking her King’s ass._

Another woman stepped up beside the first, this one with a mass of tightly braided hair, shorter and a little more muscular than the first, her expression no less dangerous. Two more moved in to flank them, all four pairs of hard black eyes focussed directly on Natasha.

_Ah, I’m outnumbered. I… think I may have to ask Laura to put in a good word for me…_

Laura was actually embracing T’Challa, as two more, slightly friendlier-looking, Wakandan women brought her children to her, Lila and Cooper clutching to the hands of one while the other carried Nate, who was chuckling to himself and tugging on her long braids. He spotted his parents then and opened his arms to them with a loud crow of happiness.

Clint took Nate with arms that shook only slightly, Lila and Cooper latching onto him for tight hugs as well. Smiling as Laura grabbed on for a family hug, T’Challa turned to the rest of them, nodding gravely.

“Welcome, all of you. Welcome to Wakanda.”

There was silence from everyone for a moment before Sam stepped forward, grinning.

“What’s new, pussycat?”

For a moment there was a shocked silence, and then T’Challa burst out laughing and his bodyguard said “ _Ngaba amgcine, Mhlekazi?_ ”

“ _Ndicinga ukuba siza ukubagcina bonke,_ Jasuri,” T’Challa managed to get out through his laughter. “We have much to learn from them, and they from us. It is time for Wakanda to begin our assimilation into the rest of the world. Let us begin by assimilating these heroes, who will stand for the truth no matter what it costs them.”

Jasuri inclined her head to him, before looking at Sam and giving him a warm smile.

“Welcome to Wakanda, Birdie.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The language used at the end here is Xhosa, the 'official' language of Wakanda as per MCU canon. Though I put out a call for help to Xhosa speakers to check Google Translate for me, nobody came forward, so if anyone sees any egregious errors now please let me know and I will fix them up directly! 
> 
> _Ngaba amgcine, Mhlekazi? - Can we keep him, your Majesty?_
> 
> _Ndicinga ukuba siza ukubagcina bonke - I think we’ll keep them all_
> 
> There are going to be two more parts of this ‘verse, one a prequel where Clint and Laura first meet, introduced by a Bionic Battle Granny Peggy who thinks they’d suit each other perfectly, and one a sequel featuring the New Avengers rebuilding in Wakanda – and where Laura _finally_ gets to tell Tony exactly what she thinks of him, so please Subscribe to the series if you're not already subscribed to me as an author, to make sure you don't miss the rest!
> 
> And as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, either here or on my [Tumblr!](http://ozhawkauthor.tumblr.com/)


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